Worm and gear and rack and pinion mechanisms are well known and are utilized to make various mechanisms, particularly for power transmission and adjustment purposes. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 219,892; 305,234; 373,192; 606,700; 611,277; 1,406,985; 1,714,109; 1,879,196; 2,102,540; 2,344,508; 2,410,544 and British patent 484,928, which not only shows the operations of prior art worms and gears, but in many instances also shows how to form worms and gears. However, a particular disadvantage of prior worm and gears and/or rack and pinion was that they required a special cut or formed surface on both the worm or rack and gear or pinion. The use of these special worm and gear or rack and pinion cut or formed surfaces increased costs, reduced the availability and utilization of the worm and gear or rack and pinion in many mechanisms. The necessity for these prior art special shapes required complicated and/or special tooling to form such surfaces, which contributed to the expense and reduced utilization.
The prior art worm-gear and/or rack and pinion constructions were disadvantageous in that they: (1) required a special tool to cut the worm and gear or rack and pinion; (2) required a special tool to divide the circumference of the blank per number of teeth desired; (3) was not self-feeding; (4) required to feed one tooth at a time; (5) required extensive movement of the cutting tool for the next tooth; (6) was not readily available; (7) was expensive to make and consequently to use; (8) was not standardized; (a) was not available in any hardware store; (10) was not readily available in any length or long lengths; (11) was not easy to replace; and did not help standardize the mechanisms, and (12) does not lend itself to compact mechanical design.